Microsoft Corporation yesterday launched its much talked about Windows Phone in India. The Windows Phone boasts of a new interface called Live Tiles which is great for people to view, consume and connect with other people. This UI which come with the Windows Phone 7 OS is called ‘Metro’ which will also be present in the new versions of Windows OS which is being called Windows 8. The Metro UI is built upon the Zune interface and looks interesting.
Announcing the launch of Windows Phone in India, Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India said, “We are incredibly excited about today’s unveiling of Windows Phone. With Windows Phone, we have looked at the consumer experience in an absolutely fresh way, and the end result is an operating system that is stylish, innovative, and one that seamlessly integrates the most sought after user experiences such as search, gaming, email and social networks across Bing, Office, Xbox LIVE, Facebook, Twitter and more”.
The conventional application icons have been replaced by Live Tiles on the Windows Phone start screen, thus displaying critical information at a glance. This is widely different from UI paradigm of iPhone and Android. The Live Tiles come to life with real-time updates from the Web such as news and appointments or the status of friends. The integrated experiences are achieved through ‘hubs’ which bring together related content into a single view to simplify common tasks.
Windows Phone Office hub has mobile versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint for working on the go. These can synchronized back to SkyDrive, Office 365 or SharePoint sites which gives an all round connectivity with the PC. The new update to the Windows OS called ‘Mango’ will be released shortly and it will better the functionality of the Windows Phone. App-wise, the Windows Phone Marketplace has not yet caught up with the likes of Android Market and the iPhone App Store.
Recently Microsoft India announced that it would give student app developers WP7 handsets. The Windows Phone OS doesn’t work with any other desktop OS including Mac OS X and Linux which frankly, is a big letdown. The best part of the Windows Phone 7 OS is that the user experience is a fresh breath of air. The Metro UI will now be used in all Windows products and will help in keeping the user experience consistent.
Speaking at the launch, Mr. Vikas Arora, Group Director – Operator Channel, Microsoft, said, “Windows Phone is for people who are ready for a new phone experience, one that brings together the things you care about in a way that uniquely represents who you really are and whether at work or play”.
Microsoft revealed a range of Windows Phone devices that will be available in India soon, the first being the HTC Radar. This will be followed by devices from Samsung and Acer, and subsequently Nokia.
Do you think Windows Phone 7 will do better in India as compared to Android and iOS?
